Edd Brominski is safe in his role as vice chairman of Luzerne County Council after his colleagues resoundingly voted Tuesday night to maintain the status quo.

Councilman Jim Bobeck surprised his colleagues during last week’s work session by seeking Brominski’s ouster in addition to a leadership change-up among council’s committees. But his proposal was tabled Tuesday night, with Bobeck the lone vote in favor of proceeding.

“I don’t feel vindicated. It’s just that there was no reason for it even to be brought up,” Brominski said. “He can bring up anything he desires, but it didn’t seem like there was a reason for it to be brought up.”

Brominski, who has been vice chairman since the start of the year, offered a surprise motion last month calling for the resignation of county Manager Robert Lawton, saying he had lost confidence in the executive’s ability to lead. The motion failed in a split vote.

Bobeck turned around last week and proposed to replace Brominski as well as leadership in council’s eight committees, offering his own resignation as chairman of the Administrative Committee.

In an email sent to council members Sunday morning, council Chairman Rick Morelli said he thinks committee leadership needs to be more diverse. Four council members head the eight committees, with Brominski, Kathy Dobash and Stephen A. Urban chairing two each.

Those members took their seats earlier this year after Morelli allowed committee members to vote on their leaders, although as chairman he has authority to appoint them.

On Sunday, Morelli said he wants to “meet council in the middle of the road” by replacing chairmen on three committees: replacing Urban with Stephen J. Urban on the Correctional Services Committee; replacing Dobash with Harry Haas on the Real Estate/Economic Development Committee; and replacing Brominski with Linda McClosky Houck on the Budget and Finance Committee.

But Morelli said he would not currently support replacing Brominski as vice chairman of council — and therefore the Authorities, Boards and Commissions Committee.

“I feel that changing the vice chair would result in more disruption to the process we have been working on over the past five months,” Morelli wrote. “Progress has been made in the committee structure and it continues to be a work in progress.”

During Tuesday’s council meeting, Haas declined his appointment to chair the real estate committee. He said later that although he previously expressed an interest in leading that group, he did not want to get in the middle of an apparent dispute between Morelli and Dobash.

“I just feel like my position was being used as a piece of retribution,” Haas said, adding that he intends to continue working to divest the county of unnecessary property despite his title on the committee.

Morelli said he would likely offer the post to Councilwoman Eileen Sorokas, but that if she declined he would allow Dobash to continue as chairwoman.

In other business, council voted to:

n Approve a new contract for Northeast Revenue Service to continue collecting the county’s delinquent property taxes through December 2017. The service also won a renewed lease at the courthouse.

n Approve a new lease for Magisterial District Judge James M. Dixon’s courtroom. The contract calls for the landlord to renovate and significantly expand the judge’s current location.

n Table a proposal to buy a .14-acre antenna farm on Penobscot Mountain, Fairview Township. County administrators described the site, which has an expired lease, as a vital link in the 911 system, but council voted to hold off after Councilman Stephen A. Urban raised questions about the proposal, including about the cost of subdividing the property and required easements.

n Table a request from Hazleton Public Transit seeking $134,000 in local match funding for state grants. Lawton reported that the agency has a surplus caused by the county over funding it in prior years and that it could use its reserve to get the grants. Council voted to hold off pending more information.

n Confirm Charleston, South Carolina, resident Tanis A. Manseau as the head of the Division of Operational Services in a 7-4 vote. One opponent, Dobash, said she opposed the $85,000 a year salary as well as a $13,000 finder’s fee that will go to a headhunting agency that recruited Manseau.

570-821-2058, @cvjimhalpin

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